Five-year highway bill proposed, with higher auto fines

Legislation also increases cap on rail accidents, makes way for improvements to auto safety recalls

East Schoolcraft is getting ready for the closure of I96 freeway also known as the Jeffries freeway on Wednesday, April 2, 2014. Starting Saturday, April 5, 2014 both directions of the highway will be closed from Telegraph to Newburgh for major road construction. Jessica J. Trevino/Detroit Free Press(Photo: Jessica J. Trevino)

WASHINGTON — With the latest highway spending patch set to expire Friday, U.S. House and Senate negotiators unveiled a five-year road and bridge bill that for the first time in years could reduce uncertainty for states and communities counting on federal infrastructure funds.

The legislation — which would spend about $300 billion and be funded, in part, by an infusion in cash from a surplus maintained by the Federal Reserve — would also triple the cap on fines against automakers found to violate motor vehicle safety laws from $35 million to $105 million, and call for other improvements in the nation’s system of alerting drivers to safety recalls.

The measure now goes to both chambers where it is expected to pass on up or down votes and be sent to President Barack Obama for his signature, which is expected even though his administration had asked for $400 million to be committed to a multiyear transportation bill.

Since the last long-term transportation bill expired in 2009, Congress has cobbled together a string of stop-gap measures to keep road and bridge projects funded, often putting state and local officials in the difficult position of not knowing whether money for needed infrastructure repairs would be available.

“This final bill provides states with the adequate, consistent funding they need to not only improve, but modernize our nation’s highway system,” said U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who served on the group that hammered out differences between House and Senate versions of the bill.

Miller also won inclusion in the legislation of a provision, also promoted by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., to promote the use of technology allowing information sharing between vehicles and infrastructure, which Detroit automakers and Michigan researchers, among others, are working on as a way to improve traffic safety and reduce congestion.

Besides the increased cap on auto safety violations — a proposal which gained traction in the wake of recalls, including one at General Motors for a faulty ignition switch which resulted in at least 124 deaths — the legislation included several other provisions involving auto safety, including one that restricts the renting of cars with open safety recalls.

The compromise legislation also restores funding cut by the House for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and its auto safety program, providing nearly $700 million over five years and agreeing to increase that by about $300 million more, if the U.S. Transportation Department certifies that recommendations made by its inspector general are completed.

Earlier this year, Inspector General Calvin Scovel III completed a review in the wake of the GM recall, finding NHTSA provided too little guidance to automakers, seldom tried to verify information it received and allowed a convoluted, overworked system to let defects go unaddressed. NHTSA said at the time it was already making changes to improve its systems for detecting safety problems.

While the transportation bill provides for a tripling of the fine against automakers, that provision also requires that NHTSA and the Transportation Department first issue a final rule on how it interprets the criteria for applying the fines.

Meanwhile, the legislation also reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank of the United States, which lost its authorization earlier this year and plays a role in financing and insuring the purchase of American goods in cases where foreign buyers may not have the up-front access to needed credit or capital. Business interests have been clamoring for the bank's reauthorization.

The legislation also includes a provision that would allow the State Department to revoke or deny passports for Americans subject to tax liens by the Internal Revenue Service in excess of $50,000, though that would not apply if the individual owing the back taxes had reached a payment settlement with the IRS or was in the process of challenging the claim.

The bill also increases from $200 million to $295 million the aggregate cap on liability claims from rail accidents and making that cap retroactive to the May 12 Amtrak accident in Philadelphia that killed eight people and injured hundreds. One of the people killed in that crash was Rachel Jacobs, 39, a native of southeastern Michigan and daughter of former state Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods.